Placing sports bets with goods may not be that far away

I was recently looking through a gambling forum when the topic of barter betting was being discussed. I never heard of the term but apparently it is quite common on social media and some smaller trading websites. According to the forum it involves two parties where one is interested in buying a product from the other, but instead of a quick sale, the parties place a bet on a sporting event and if the buyer wins he receives the product for free (or a significantly reduced price). If the seller wins, the buyer gives him the full amount of the price they agree to in addition to the winning bet amount. After a bit of research, it seems that bitcoin was one of the main sparks for the idea.

When bitcoins were trading for pennies or only a few dollars, instead of purchasing bitcoins from a site like Mt. Gox or Bitpay which at the time involved a complex procedure and involved hefty fees, people who wanted bitcoins often put up a type of ‘ad’ on bitcoin websites offering to buy them. However, many of the buyers were quite young with no disposable income so instead of offering cash they would agree to trade an item in exchange for the virtual currency. So, for instance the ad may indicate that a person is prepared to sell their new PS3 system in exchange for $200 worth of bitcoins. It worked for everyone. If the owner of the bitcoins was planning on buying a PS3 system anyways they may have been only too happy to send say 150 BTC in exchange for the PS3 system. It was a pure barter system that involved no cash and made both parties happy. Apparently from that rose the notion that this could apply to sports betting as well. Why not simply make a bet – if you win the bet you get BTC. If I win the bet I get your guitar. Not long after sites like BTC Sportsbet popped up but many individuals, underground bookies and even pawn brokers tried to get in on the action too. Most of this was done on the dark web, but it was occurring.

The person who wrote about the topic on the forum was “Charlie”, so I contacted him by DM on the forum site. He agreed to talk about it more on the promise of anonymity. He said that he had a pawnbroking business in the UK, which, of course, always involved bartering. But he also said he was a gambler and many of his clients were too. So, he proposed an idea. If someone he knew was a gambler often he would go through the list of games or horse races on any given day and would see where he and the other person differed on which team or horse, they liked. If his client agreed they worked out a bet where he would take one side, the person would take the other side and at risk was a product the other person wanted from his pawn store and at risk to the other person was a product he wanted to sell.

Charlie explained: “Say you have some artifacts you want to sell, and we agree to a price of £500. I will say what do you want from my store? You may pick out a watch valued at £1000. We look at the list of games for the day and if we may take different sides on say Arsenal vs. Sunderland. Arsenal is a -250 favorite and you Sunderland. I might say that this is good. I’m willing to give you +200 that Arsenal won’t win in regulation time which is 40p better than you would get at a bookie in exchange for the trade. So, if Arsenal wins you would lose the artifact which is not a problem because you were probably going to lose that to a bookie anyways and if you win you would get the £1000 watch and keep your memorabilia. I still likely want the artifact, so we would look at other games and eventually you would lose and send it to me. I will only do this with people I trust that will not back out of sending me their goods and it more or less is a friendly bet with no mark up. For you the advantage is better odds and not having to send money to the bookie and for me the advantage is that I don’t have to write up a receipt if you lose, so I save a few pounds from the tax man.”

I suggested this idea to a manager at an offshore bookmaker who laughed at the idea, but then said it had some merit. He said when you think about it, this happened often in Vegas in the old days. Often someone sitting at a blackjack table and out of cash would remove a Rolex watch and ask what they could get for it. The pit boss who was trained to know the value of goods would assess it and often say “I’ll give you $1,500 in chips.” The understanding was that if you won you had the option of getting your watch back in exchange for giving back the $1,500 (many times a receipt was even written) and if you lost and walked away and the casino kept the watch which they usually sold for even more.

The bookmaker said that he doubted his company would ever allow it, but if he was in charge and was dealing with U.S. customers who had few options to send or receive cash he may consider it – especially for larger bettors.

“If I could get a Rolex watch, some gold bars or an expensive painting I would probably agree to let the person place a bet in exchange for the goods. And because it doesn’t go through banks there’s no real risk to either side.” The bookmaker’s laughed turned to contemplation and then said, “you know what I really need to look at this more closely and talk with the boss.”

The next question of course is how would it work? The answer may not be that complicated.

Many gambling sites now offer rewards to VIPs for their wagering and this consists of free bets but also goods, such as trips or even golf clubs. So why not work it the other way?

The person who wants to bet would have to take their product to a local assessor that both he/she and the bookmaker agree to and when the price is set the bettor gets funds in his account to that value. If the bettor loses all the funds, the good would be sent to the bookie who can then list it as a VIP reward. If the bettor wins, then he would get his goods back and have the funds to keep betting. And if the U.S. bettor wants to withdraw winnings he can do so with bitcoin and other crypto currencies. If the bettor cashes out $6,000 in winnings, the bookie would simply transfer one bitcoin to the bettor’s wallet.

Is the idea possible? Yes.

Is it feasible? Maybe.

Is it realistic?

When I first read the idea on the forum my first reaction was that it was preposterous. But after thinking about it more closely I see the merits. It completely avoids the banking system and involves the exchange of one thing for another that both sides benefit from. And after hearing the bookie say, “I really need to look at this more closely” I’m convinced this may actually come true in the near future.

We’ll keep an eye on this topic and see if this Rumor becomes a news story in the near future.

Read insights from Hartley Henderson every week here at OSGA and check out more from Hartley’s RUMOR MILL!